The Coeus Group
The Coeus Group (/kee-yose/) is an information brokerage that focuses both on the buying and selling of secrets as well as on the task of connecting their clients to the people who can answer their questions. Founded following the fall of House Vela, The Coeus Group was one of the hundreds of small companies that sprung up to fill the vacuum created by the burning of the Great Library. While most of these companies focused on either building a new library or recovering knowledge that was lost, former PRISM News Editor Aristotle Seide focused on building out the extensive network of contacts he developed during his years in news. This contact database, known as "The Index," is made up of experts and artists, business people and bureaucrats, as well as all the people that know the little tricks and secrets that never end up being documented in reports. It is a bank of institutional knowledge that remains unmatched across Acheron Rho, and ensures that The Coeus Group will always have the lead needed to find an answer to any questions asked by their clients. The Coeus Group is headquartered on Imperial Prime in an office complex located just off Embassy Row. While still a small and growing company with fewer than five hundred employees, it has managed to situate bureaus on each of the major worlds of the sector as well as establish brokers in a number of the smaller, less important systems. Aristotle Seide is the President and CEO of The Coeus Group, and is supervised by a board of directors made up of members of some of the most powerful factions in the Empire. The Board of Directors * Augur Historia Fornax Tyll Abela * Grand Cryptologist Triangulum Yumi Bass 荘司 * Ms. Mugenjishi Caravan * Lord Cathar Crux DeMaiste Elish Bureaus, Agents, and Assets O’Gallagher’s Salvage and Repair Yard "Welcome to the yard! Are you looking to buy or sell? You’re in luck! The “Wait Were We Supposed to be Subtle” docked last week, and I was able to get my pick of the haul before those hacks in Steenmouth showed. I have exactly what you’re looking for -- refurbed it myself! You won’t find a part in better shape anywhere on Shān. What’s that? A bit short on funds? Well, depending on who and what you know we still might be able to strike a bargain ..." O’Gallagher’s Salvage and Repair Yard is a privately owned scrap yard located in the Marble Fields on a makeshift landing between New Montgomery and the spaceport on Shān. The Yard was established when Lorcan O’Gallagher made an emergency landing with his ship, the Hastati class Heavy Frigate Granuaile’s Fury, shortly after the fall of Montgomery Station. Forced to salvage his vessel for parts he could sell and contract out his skills as a ship’s mechanic so he could afford to feed his family, O’Gallagher’s quickly became a popular place for members of the fleet to off-load any scrap they’d acquired as well as purchase second hand parts needed to repair their ships. "Oh that? That’s my Da’s old boat, the “Granuaile’s Fury.” He stole it from the Fornax himself. Sure, it looks like a hunk of junk but it held itself together through some rough spots, and I’m finally close to getting it fixed. Just need a few more parts! Oh, and before you get any fancy ideas, the guns work just fine." O’Gallagher’s is currently owned by Lorcan’s daughter, Saoirse O’Gallagher, and has expanded to include a series of small warehouses surrounding the ruins of the Granuaile’s Fury. Saoirse learned from her mother that sometimes there is value in knowing a thing, and once she started working with her father her willingness to sell and trade parts at a discount if it came with valuable information increased the profitability and status of the Yard among the Vagrant in New Montgomery. When The Coeus Group formed, Saoirse’s background in information gathering and extensive network among the Vagrant fleet made her a natural choice as the head of the newly formed Shān bureau. But taking the position came with two conditions: she would never trade information about where the fleets are currently located or where they will be going. Today you’re just as likely to find a gholam of the Dragons looking for information at O’Gallagher’s as you are a captain of the pirate fleets looking to trade parts. By making herself an essential part of the community in New Montgomery, Saoirse has managed to find a level of security few on Shān can match. Yet despite that, if you are paying attention you can still see her look lovingly at the old ruined ship in the center of the yard. When the odd patron comes with just the right piece of salvage you can see her eyes shift from calculation to delight. And late at night, long after the yard has closed, if you are passing by you can hear the echo of a hammer on metal, the electric buzz of an arc welder, or the scream of a saw cutting metal. The Granuaile’s Fury looks like it’s not anywhere close to being repaired, but maybe with the right parts she might see space again. Lux Gravare Bureau "Slow down there a bit friend. What seems to be the problem? Ahh, well, that makes sense. I can see why you came to me. Now don't you worry your head none, I know just the fella who can help us out -- old poker buddy in the government who owes me a few favors. And listen, I know money's tight for you these days so we'll find a way to make things square. You know, I heard tell about an outsider who was spotted out your way. Maybe if you let me know when you see them we can call it even." Located in a renovated warehouse near the recently built high class residential neighborhoods in the Riverside District, the Coeus Group office on Cabina is run by former Sheriff Josef Underwood. The warehouse district where the office can be found serves as a crossroads between the upper class establishment of SERAPH and the criminal underworld lurking in the shadows, making it one of the few places in Lux Gravare where both groups of people can be found. In the interest of being able to serve both groups, the Coeus Group offices were designed with two different ways into and out of the building. The first, more obvious entrance, is located in the front of the building and was designed to funnel guests through an open air garden where the warehouse floor was once located. The second, more hidden entrance, is located behind a wrought iron gate in the sewers, enabling those who wish to be more circumspect to safely enter and leave the building without being seen. Both entrances lead to a simple, windowless reception area where the only piece of furniture is the front desk. Potential clients are quickly ushered into private rooms on the second floor where they will meet with a Coeus Group broker, while those without current business to be attended to are firmly encouraged to wait in the garden area. The director offices, including those of Bureau Chief Underwood, can be found on the third floor. Typically, meetings with director level personnel are reserved for special clients, but Josef has always made a point of making himself available to anyone that may need his help. A laid back and genial man, Josef has a simple rustic charisma that makes it easy for people to like him. He’s just as comfortable and charming chatting over drinks around a frontier town poker table as he is making the rounds at a high society ball. And no matter who you are or how much money you might have, he makes sure that when you are talking with him you are the center of his attention. Forced out of his position as the Sheriff of Hillgrove Plain following the dissolution of the Church of Humanity, Repentant and the rise of the League of Frontier Towns, Josef accepted the position of Bureau Chief with the understanding that he would be able to use the position to help the vulnerable and powerless. Today, Josef is just as likely to spend the favors he acquires on helping a poor farmer in need of help as he is on acquiring information. To some that may be considered a waste, but Josef learned in his time on the frontier that on Cabina, the poor, desperate, and criminal are just as likely to have your answer as the priests and executives in the cities. And if he can make Cabina a better place along the way? All the better. Habitat One Bureau “No, I don’t have the information you are looking for. Yes, I can find it. But it will cost you a fortune, and with all due respect, you’re asking the wrong question. Give me five minutes and a fraction of the fee, and I’ll tell you the question you should be asking, the answer to it, and why it’s so important for you to be asking this instead.” Located between a diner serving ramen and a tea house, at first glance the office for the Coeus Group on Habitat One is unassuming. It is housed in a windowless building built of titanium and plasteel, with the sole distinguishing feature being a hologram of the orange, crimson, and grey company logo hanging in front of a heavy brass door that hisses open when approached. The reception area is covered in translucent grey and white tile arranged in a checkerboard pattern, with a series of unevenly sized glass cylinders floating adjacent to the walls lighting the room. A headless automaton floats behind a desk constructed of brass and chrome, and the mask-like face of a Coeus Group broker occasionally pops into place to welcome any visitors who enter the building. The most prominent feature of the reception area sits behind the desk -- a network of vacuum tubes crafted in the shape of a tree with pulses of light traveling up and down the branches through the trunk to beneath the floor. The lower half of the tree can be seen through the translucent tiles in the floor. A series of walkways crisscross the room beneath the floor, and brokers can be seen moving back and forth across them to access a tree that mirrors the one above. Periodically one of the pulses of light will stop at the terminus of a branch, producing a rolled up piece of paper which is grabbed by a broker and taken into an unseen room. Those who have an appointment are invited to step into the apparently solid trunk of the tree, only to appear in a simple round room where the hologram of a broker is available to discuss their case. Important clients are taken to the office of the Bureau Chief, Robotics Triangulum Paxton Otis. His office looks more like an engineering lab than a place of business. Schematics and designs hang in the air above fabrication benches sitting along the back wall, and half a dozen partially built robots hang suspended from a lattice of wires as spider-like limbs work to etch unseen circuitry into the interior paneling. Clients are welcomed to stand on a silver disk in front of Otis's desk, where a chair designed to match their frame is instantly fabricated. Most days those visiting his office will catch Otis just as he’s finishing work on a robot, his tools melting from his hands back into the many varied rings on his fingers as he steps back behind his desk. Bureau Chief Paxton Otis doesn’t appear to be an imposing or impressive figure in his brown colored waistcoat, wearing a silk shirt with rolled up sleeves and tweed pants, but it becomes quickly apparent just how quick his mind is and how deep his knowledge goes on every topic. Sometimes suspiciously so. He answers every question with a direct, concise economy while still finding a way to make his words warm instead of clinical. It’s rare to find an academic so capable of engaging with people on a human level. It’s rarer to find one who is able to navigate the cutting edge science being produced in Triangulum’s labs while also being so comfortable treading the more shadowy aspects of Habitat One. It’s no surprise that Director Yumi Bass would recruit such a man to be the Bureau Chief of the Habitat One bureau. But it does make one wonder how she was able to find someone so perfectly suited for the role, and why he would be so willing to take the position. -- More Coming Soon --Category:Organizations __FORCETOC__ Category:The Coeus Group